Thermal degradation in heterogeneous concrete materials

In this paper we will examine the interaction of thermal and mechanical damage processes in heterogeneous materials such as concrete. After a brief introduction of the effect of coupling on the conditioning of algebraic and differential problems, we will address two topics: (a) Interaction of Thermal and Mechanical Damage. In the first part we will explore the formulation of thermal and mechanical damage at the continuum level of observations, when thermal softening is interacting with mechanical degradation. To this end we will contrast two thermoelastic formulations which will illustrate the effect of stress/strain on the effective thermal expansion. (b) Thermal Stress and Deformation Studies. In the second part we will consider thermal effects in heterogeneous composites with applications to concrete materials when thermal softening leads to massive degradation of their resistance.